The present disclosure relates to computing systems, and, in particular, to package management systems for managing software on a computer system.
A package management system is a set of software tools that are used to automate the process of maintaining software on a data processing system. For example, a package management system may automate such functions as installing, upgrading, configuring and removing software packages in a consistent manner. A software package is a distribution of software, applications, and/or data. Software packages may also include metadata, which may include name(s) for the contents of the package, description(s) of the various files, version number(s), vendor identification information, checksum(s), and/or dependency information for the software to run properly.
Current package management systems typically support a single package format. If they allow the importation of foreign packages, it is typically by converting them to their own format. While older, manual methods of software installation may still be available where an administrator runs an installer directly, which compiles a package or injects pre-compiled code into the system, such an approach bypasses the centralized control of using a package management system to administer and maintain the software on the data processing system.